Environment Award – Sponsored by The Warehouse Technology Group (WTG)

The Samson Nano pallet-wrapping solution from Samuel Grant Group Ltd communicates every time it wraps a pallet allowing Samuel Grant to ensure that it is working at maximum efficiency.

Information is displayed in Samuel Grant’s office so that every pallet wrapped can be checked and on the Internet to allow users to monitor their machine’s progress.

The innovation allows Samuel Grant to charge per pallet wrapped.

The wrapping machine includes the lowest turntable in the world to allow easy loading of pallets.

The measuring and monitoring equipment has never been applied to pallet wrapping before. In combination with the data transmission technology, it allows a managed pallet wrapping service to be offered.

The system can normally achieve at least 50% saving in tonnes of Polythene and still obtain a greater pallet stabilisation. This could equate to a saving of as much as 70,000 tonnes of polythene annually or in CO2 terms a saving of 182,000 tonnes per year.

Import Services Limited

Import Services is the leading Port-centric logistics company in the UK, operating from Southampton and London Gateway, linking supply chain services with global real time information, to meet the new world of retailing. While other 3PLs are waiting for containers to arrive at sites inland, Import Services has already received merchandise into their port-side facilities, processing orders swiftly, for distribution directly to market, cutting time and cost in the supply chain. Major retailers are also keen on Import Services consolidating their suppliers’ orders at the Container Port; because this model helps rationalise deliveries into DCs, cutting road miles and carbon emissions in a significant, environmentally friendly shift, for all parties involved.

Hormann UK Ltd

Over the last few years, Hormann UK Ltd has worked closely with industrial real estate owners and tenants to minimise the environmental impact of loading bays, while meeting the demands of increasingly busy warehouses.

Hormann’s approach to loading bay development is to offer the most energy-efficient solutions that meet the operational needs of the customer, an outlook that the manufacturer adopts with its own production facilities.

CO2 emissions across the company’s 16 factories have been reduced by 16,000 tonnes each year through a variety of measures. These include the use of renewably generated energy, the installation of combined heat and power plants, and switching from oil to gas heating at some locations. Such measures allow the company to maintain its high manufacturing standards while significantly reducing their environmental impact.

As part of this, Hormann has committed to directly connecting its production facilities with renewable power stations, wherever possible. This move means that 40%of the energy used in the Group’s German factories is now supplied by a fully green provider, Naturstrom, which generates electricity through medium-sized wind and water power stations. Overall, this policy has led to a 12,000 tonne reduction in the Group’s CO2 emissions.

Innovative block heating stations have also been installed in many Hormann factories. These combined power plants use the excess heat produced in generating power to warm the buildings. This not only helps to lower the required primary energy of each facility but has also helped to reduce CO2 by a further 1,400 tonnes.

Raw materials for Hormann’s products are, where possible, sourced from high-quality local suppliers in central Europe, reducing the impact of transporting goods to its manufacturing facilities in Germany. The benefit to customers of such stringent policies is twofold – the company can provide Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for its full door range, and the careful selection of materials helps to ensure its products have a long service life and low maintenance requirement.

Warehouse & Logistics News is the UK’s only fortnightly magazine for the warehousing and logistics industry and has a circulation and frequency which is unrivalled in the industry.

The magazine is distributed 21 times a year in printed, digital and online formats, which suits the needs of today’s generation of industry professionals. We combine the best of printed and new media to get your message to the senior buyers and decision makers in the warehousing and logistics industry.